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Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278

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Trends in ecological river engineering in Korea

Hyoseop Woo*
Korea Institute of Construction Technology, River Research Division, 2311 Daehwa-Dong, Ilsanseo-Gu, Goyang City, Gyeonggi-Do 411 712, Republic of Korea
Received 22 April 2010; revised 15 June 2010; accepted 23 June 2010

Abstract

Ecological river engineering can be defined as the design and implementation of river works and river restoration works for the benefit of
human society. It also guarantees the sustainable ecological functions of a river, such as its habitats and self-purification of its water. It is
currently in the beginning stages in Korea, utilizing scientific knowledge on the processes of aquatic ecosystem degeneration and a methodology
for solving the ecological problems in artificially altered rivers currently under development. The changes in river management and work
practices in Korea may be best explained with a chronologically progressing sequence of ‘Natural’, ‘Disaster-prevention’, ‘Occupied’, ‘Park’,
and ‘Close-to-nature’ rivers. Since the 1960s, the focus on river management and work has shifted from flood control only, to both flood control
and riverine habitat conservation and restoration. Five research topics have been selected for this article, and the progress of each research area is
briefly described with a representative picture in each topic. They are as follows: (1) flow resistance due to vegetation, (2) environmental flow,
(3) floodplain vegetation modeling, (4) small dam removal, and (5) river restoration. For the future prospects of research on ecological river
engineering in Korea, a necessity of further research on floodplain vegetation recruitment and succession, which can explain the so-called ‘white
river’ and ‘green river’, is underlined, among others. Finally, two ongoing large research programs on river ecosystem restoration, of which are
sponsored by the Government of Korea, are briefly introduced, followed by the introduction of a near-prototype experiment facility recently
completed mainly for research on ecological river engineering.
Ó 2010 International Association of Hydro-environment Engineering and Research, Asia Pacific Division. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights
reserved.

Keywords: Ecological river engineering; Flow resistance; Environmental flow; Floodplain vegetation modeling; Small dam removal; River restoration

1. Introduction environmental engineering, in the sense that ecological engi-

River engineering may be defined as the process of planned
human intervention in the course, characteristics or flow of
a river, combined with the intention of producing some defined
benefits, such as management of the water resources and floods
or making the passage along or across rivers easier. It is an
‘old’ traditional engineering field normally treated in the civil
engineering disciplines. Ecological engineering, on the other
hand, can be defined as the design of sustainable ecosystems
that integrate human society with its natural environment for
the benefit of both (Mitsch and Jorgensen, 2004). It differs
from the applications of science and engineering to fit the
surroundings for human use only, such as civil, agricultural, or
* Tel.: þ82 31 9100 549; fax: þ82 31 9100 251.
E-mail address: hswoo@kict.re.kr
neering stands for the benefit of an ecosystem as well as human
society. Therefore, ecological river engineering can be defined
as the design and implementation of river works and river
restoration works for the benefit of humankind that also
guarantees the sustainable ecological function of river such as
habitats and self-purification.
The rapid progress in urbanization and industrialization
since the 1960s had accelerated the degradation of the natural
ecosystems including aquatic and riparian zones in the rivers.
Rivers in the Korean Peninsula are heavily affected by the
monsoon climate, which carries moist air from the Pacific
Ocean to East Asia, affecting east China, Korea and Japan.
Flood control during heavy rainfall periods, especially
typhoons, and securing irrigating water needed during dry or
drought periods are, therefore, very important. This usually
required control with large-scale river works such as

1570-6443/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 International Association of Hydro-environment Engineering and Research, Asia Pacific Division. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jher.2010.06.003
270 H. Woo / Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278
channelization and damming. These have resulted in severe
degradation of the natural ecosystems of rivers. Ecological
river engineering has emerged from this situation. It is,
however, at the beginning stages in Korea. Scientific knowl-
edge on the processes of aquatic ecosystem degeneration and
methodologies for solving the ecological problems in artifi-
cially altered rivers are currently under development both in
Korea and neighboring Japan (Kamada et al., 2004).
This article highlights river management practices related
especially to ecological river engineering in Korea, current
research trends, and future prospects of ecological river
engineering. Research trends on ecological river
engineering are briefly described in a sequence of flow resis-
tance due to vegetation, environmental flow, floodplain vege-
tation modeling, small dam removal, and river restoration all
of which can be schematically represented in a diagram
uniquely shown in this article. A large-scale river project,
titled the “Four Major River Restoration Project”, now under
construction, is also briefly introduced. Finally, future pros-
pects of ecological river engineering are suggested on flood-
plain vegetation recruitment and succession, followed by two
large-size national research programs on river restoration, and
a near-prototype experiment facility recently completed
mainly for research on ecological river engineering.
2. River management practices in Korea
A clear and concise explanation on the geography and
climate of Korea can be found in the article of Kamada et al.
(2004). In this article, therefore, the characteristics of river
management practices are briefly presented focusing on
a general pattern of the changes in river management practices
(Woo et al., 2003). In general, there are three major types of
river works for the management and utilization of a river:
channelization, canalization and damming. In Korea, however,
canalization is uncommon. Therefore, in this article, changes
in river management practices are focused on channelization
and damming, and restoration of the degraded rivers. The EC
Water Framework Directive 2000 (see the website noted in the
reference) dictates that the main objectives of river manage-
ment are to improve aquatic ecosystems, to promote sustain-
able water use, to reduce pollution and groundwater pollution,
and to mitigate floods and droughts. At present, the general
aims of river management in Korea are also in the same line
with the EC Directive 2000. The aims of river management in
Korea, however, have progressed since the 1960s at several
distinct stages, which are explained next in detail.
Streams and rivers in Korea have been changed in four or
five distinct stages since the progression of urbanization in the
1960s. Before then, most streams and rivers were in their
natural conditions with few artificial structures such as dams
(including irrigation weirs) and levees. During this period, the
natural functions of rivers such as ecological habitats were
well preserved. A typical example of such rivers is shown in
Fig. 1(a).
Since the mid 1960s, however, the rapid urbanization,
industrialization and reclamations of cultivated lands caused
the overall environments of many streams and rivers to
continuously deteriorate. Major causes during those years
were single-purpose channel works for flood control, recla-
mation and the readjustment of riparian cultivated lands, i.e.,
so-called channelization. This practice has continued until
current times without any significant changes. This type of
river is called a “Disaster-prevention River” because in such
rivers, flood control is first considered as neglecting, in most
cases, the natural functions of the rivers. A typical example of
such rivers is shown in Fig. 1(b). As result, many rivers and
streams have lost their precious natural functions including
ecological habitats, self-purification of river water, and
riparian scenery. In 2007, about 95% of the total lengths that
required channelization in the two channel sides of the major
rivers (National Rivers and Class 1 Rivers of a total length of
4255 km) in Korea have been channelized, while about 79% of
Class 2 Rivers (total length of about 24,930 km) have been
channelized (Ministry of Land, 2008).
Since the 1980’s, another pattern of river work practices
began mostly on urban streams, that is, to occupy the narrow
floodplains of the streams for purposes other than those
belonging authentically to the streams, such as roadways,
parking lots, and even covering the streams. It can be referred
to as an “Occupied River”. A typical scene of such streams is
shown in Fig. 1(c).
In the early 1990s, the necessity of the restoration of those
channelized and/or occupied rivers especially in urban areas
was raised with a social mood of economic achievement and
environmental concern. Attention was paid particularly to the
channelized urban streams with concrete-covered revetments,
levees and clear-off corridors. River engineers have converted
those rivers into pleasant-looking river parks for their citizens.
Such rivers can be referred to as a “Park River”, in which the
aesthetic value of river, or in other words, amenity, is restored.
This trend of the conversion of channelized rivers into Park
Rivers continues to this day in Korea. A typical scene of such
rivers is shown in Fig. 1(d), which was first created in 1986.
River restoration, including the restoration of the natural
functions of the rivers, in Korea had only begun in the late
1990s, first as some demonstration projects under government-
supported research projects. One of them is the project on the
development of techniques of a ‘close-to-nature river’ (MOE/
KICT, 1996e2001). This has had the most influence and
encouraged river engineers to attempt further river restoration
works. Such rivers regenerated by the restoration works can be
called a “Close-to-nature River” or simply an “Ecological
River”, as their natural functions have been significantly
enhanced. A typical scene of such rivers is shown in Fig. 1(e),
which is not yet common in Korea.
Questions that have arisen from this pattern of changes in
river management practices include how to technically achieve
the so-called “close-to-nature” practice in different rivers and
streams, and how to assess restored rivers in terms of the
soundness and sustainability of ecosystems and flood-safety.
All of these questions may require further research on
ecological river engineering, which is described in the
following.
 H. Woo / Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278 271

Fig. 1. Changes in river management practice in the viewpoint of channelization and restoration.

3. Major research in ecological river engineering
Areas of concern of ecological river engineering may be
best explained with Fig. 2 modified from Tsujimoto (1999),
which shows the physical interactions among the relevant
factors. In this figure, the solid line indicates a direct influence
from one factor to another, while dotted lines indicate an
indirect and/or long-term effect.
As shown in this figure, the traditional river engineering (or
hydraulic engineering) discipline is only concerned with the
interaction between flow, sediment, river morphology, and
hydraulic structure (left half in Fig. 2), all of which are abiotic
processes. The river ecological engineering (or ecohydraulics,
as an emerging fundamental discipline for hydro-engineering
and research), on the other hand, is additionally concerned
with the aquatic and riparian ecosystems, and the flora and
fauna living in those systems. Here, ecohydraulics can be
defined as sampling and modeling technologies for the inte-
gration of the physical, chemical and biological processes of
the aquatic ecosystem (CER, 2006).
As is clear from Fig. 2, therefore, ecological river engi-
neering has several major ingredients, which had not been
considered in the traditional river engineering discipline.
Research trends of ecological river engineering in Korea, if

direct influence
indirect influence /long-term effect Flow

alteration Flow resistance

Hydraulic pressure environmental flow
sediment load Flow structure
Habitat (turbidity /
interception Sediment bed armoring ) Fauna
Structures
(Transport) deposition Vegetation
functions declined
morphological changes
(eg. Scour / deposition ) Dist tractive stress

riverbed change, failure , functions habitat

declined morphological changes
local scour
(eg. bar expansion)

Geomorphology

<Ecological river engineering >

<Traditional river engineerng >
Fig. 2. Areas of concern in traditional river engineering and ecological river engineering in terms of physical interactions among various relevant factors (Modified
from Tsujimoto, 1999).
272 H. Woo / Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278
based on that figure, can then be categorized into flow resis-
tance due to vegetation, instream flow (or environmental flow
if focused on aquatic ecosystems) requirements, floodplain
vegetation modeling, small dam removal, and river restoration.
3.1. Flow resistance due to vegetation
Vegetation in rivers affects flow and sediment transport
generally in two ways: it affects flow resistance with an
additional roughness, and it causes sediment to be deposited
in the vegetation by the deceleration of the flow into it and
creating eddies behind it. Experiments in flumes for change in
flow resistance due to vegetation, both artificially modeled
ones and real ones, have been continuously investigated in
Korea including, among others, Rhee et al. (2008). As for the
numerical modeling of additional flow resistance, a paper
recently presented at an ASCE-EWRI conference by the
author documents effectively the recent advancements in
river flow modeling in Korea, including vegetation effects
(Woo et al., 2008).
Recently, a 1D river flow model has been developed to take
into account the effects of flow resistance due to vegetation
(Kim et al., 2010). This model is based on the upwind implicit
scheme using the finite difference method to solve the one-
dimensional St. Venant equations with a new source term and
using the drag force approach for the representation of the flow
resistance due to vegetation. The sizes of tree trunks, the
number of trees per unit area and the drag force coefficient are
the major input data for this model. Without using the
composite Manning roughness coefficient, the model shows
stable and accurate results throughout the experiment and field
cases used for comparison.
A 2D river flow model has been recently introduced for
simulating flows affected by vegetative resistance in the
vegetated channel (Kim et al., 2006c). In this model, the
shallow water equations are solved numerically using the 2D
characteristic dissipative-Galerkin method. In order to take
into account the vegetative resistance, the drag force terms are
included in the flow equations. The model was extended to be
capable of computing the morphological changes in the river
(Choi et al., 2006). The effect of gravity force due to geometry
change and secondary currents are also considered in the
model, especially for simulating the bed elevation change in
a bend. For 3D computations of the open-channel flow,
a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model has been proposed
with the Reynolds stress model used for the turbulence closure
(Choi and Kang, 2006). This model has been applied to
various types of open-channel flows, including rectangular
channel flows, partly-vegetated flows (Kang and Choi,
2006), flows over smootherough bed strips, and compound
channel flows.
In most practical hydraulic and hydrologic calculations,
such as changes in the water stage by changes in either
topographic or flow conditions of the river, both 1D and 2D
models developed either here in Korea or imported abroad
are widely used, while the 3D models are still at the
research level.
3.2. Instream flow
The concept of the instream flow requirement in Korea was
first adopted mainly for the evaluation of the amount of flow
needed to prevent salt water intrusion into an estuary in the
1960s, during a boom of river basin developments. In the late
1980s, flow requirements for diluting polluted river waters was
included in the concept of instream flow, as water pollution
had then emerged as a sensitive social issue in Korea. The
concept of instream flow requirements for guaranteeing the
physical condition of aquatic habitats, especially for fish
habitats, (which is called environmental flows or environmental
water allocations), is new, and emerged in the mid 1990s with
a pioneering study on the determination of river instream flow
needs for fish habitats (Kim et al., 1996). Since then, a series
of research projects on the instream flow for fish habitats
have been conducted in practicing sectors (MOCT/KICT,
1997e1999) for practical purposes and in academic sectors
(Im et al., 2007) mainly for adapting the PHABSIM model
developed in the U.S.A. (USGS, 1998) to the rivers in Korea.
Thus far, the instream flow requirements are formally included
in the ‘River Act’ in Korea, while the environmental water
allocations are not yet legally guaranteed.
One of the important unsolved issues for research of
instream flow in Korea is the lack of a database for habitat
suitability indices of various aquatic species of fauna. Data of
fish and other index species of micro-invertebrates, which
are authentic in Korea, are being collected and data-based
through a national research program, called “Ecoriver21”
(Woo, 2007).
3.3. Floodplain vegetation modeling
Dams that were constructed at upper river reaches and
gravel mining in the river are two of the major factors that
alter river ecosystems in Korea, as well as the river works of
channel straightening and embankment. Regulation of floods
by dams, which have been widely utilized since the 1960s,
reduces the magnitude and frequency of flood disturbances,
and hence increases the chance for vegetation to be recruited
and grow on the once ‘naked’ sand/gravel bars downstream, as
first reported by Johnson (1994). The expansion of vegetation
covered on sand and gravel bars downstream of dams has been
largely observed, such as in the Hwang River (Woo et al.,
2004a) a tributary of the Nakdong River and in the upper
Nakdong River (Woo et al., 2004b, 2010). Limiting factors of
vegetation expansion on sandbars which are affected by hydro-
geomorphic changes were found to be in the soil moisture
contents and bed shear stress (Woo et al., 2005), which have
also been proven in other parts of the world. Critical shear
stress on the sand and gravel bars governs the physical
stability of germinated and growing plants by scours and
burying, which can be expressed as the dimensionless critical
shear stress of 0.06 as shown in the Shields diagram. The
differences between the ground table of sand bars and the
normal water levels of a river channel seems to be another
governing factor to the growth of plants on the sand bars
 H. Woo / Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278
dictating the soil moisture contents, while the capillary height
of water in the sands is also considered.
The Hwanggang Dam, completed in 1988 on a typical
sandy river, has completely controlled the river discharge to an
amount of about 20 m3/s throughout the entire period of
a year. The dam spillway had only been operated twice for the
release of floodwater over the past 20 years. This condition
had provided for the common riparian plants in Korea, such as
willows and reeds, with a good chance to be recruited and
established on the sandbars in the river. The ratio of vegeta-
tion-covered areas over the total sandbar areas changed from 2
to 3% in 1982 prior to dam construction (see the left in Fig. 3)
to 60e80% in 1996 after the dam construction. Thickly
vegetated islands and sandbars created unique riverine habitats
(see the right in Fig. 3). A field and analytic investigation was
made by Choi et al. (2005) in order to investigate how much
the vegetation had expanded and what had mainly caused the
vegetation expansion in the reach.
3.4. Removal of small dams and weirs
The removal of small dams, which are also called “weirs”
in Korea, installed across the river, is another way of river
restoration focused primarily on the restoration of an eco-
corridor. It is surely a direct method for the restoration of
a river, the eco-corridor of which is disconnected by a struc-
ture as implicitly indicated in Fig. 2 (factors of ‘structures’ vs.
‘fauna’ through ‘flow’). Dam removal has already been prac-
ticed both in Europe and the U.S.A. (Hart et al., 2002).
Currently, they only consider small and outdated dams and
weirs, the functions of which are already been retired (Doyle
et al., 2003). According to one statistic, there are hundreds
of such dams (with heights of over 15 m) and about 18,000
weirs in Korea (Ahn et al., 2007). Some of them, especially
small weirs with heights of 0.5e3.0 m, that had been con-
structed originally mainly for channel irrigation, have lost
their original functions and usages due to neighboring paddy
lands that were converted into urban areas and other uses and
thus irrigation water is no longer required. Among those
functionless and useless weirs, physical removal of those
structures is a direct way to restore the river corridor and river
flow continuities and sediment dynamics. In this case, river
engineers must be concerned with the physical, chemical and
ecological impacts of dam removal and best management
Fig. 3. Sand bars in the Hwang River (White River; left) and thick vegetation in the river (Green River; right).
273
practice of the river reach after removal (Stanley and Doyle,
2003). For example, a four-year research project with a few
demonstration works, started in early 2004 (Choi et al., 2007),
concerns some technical problems that can arise from the
removal of weirs. They are (1) sediment transport and
morphological change caused by removal of a weir structure in
the river, (2) a change in the water quality in the river by the
removal of a weir and by transport and re-deposition of
polluted sediment originally deposited in the pool upstream,
(3) prediction of transitions and change in the riparian and
aquatic ecosystem due to the removal. Fig. 4 shows a case of
removal of a 190-m long and 2.5-m high weir for the resto-
ration of the aquatic eco-corridor for migrating eels.
3.5. River restoration
In Korea, the first river restoration project, a test project for
research purposes, was initiated in the mid 1990s by the public
sector (MOE/KICT, 1996e2001). This six-year research
project was intended for the development of stream restoration
techniques to be used in mid- to small urban streams that had
been artificially channelized with concrete. Two reaches, an
upstream reach and a downstream reach, were selected in
an urban stream flowing near and in Seoul; a pilot stream
restoration project in the upstream reach was described in
Woo et al. (1999), while another project in the downstream
reach was described in Woo et al. (2000).
Since the research project was proven successful, several
river restoration projects have followed from the late 1990s,
such as in the Kyungan River (Yoon et al., 2004). Numerous
small-scale river restoration projects are presently being
implemented, although they focus mainly on the improvement
of stream water quality and the enhancement of the riparian
aesthetic value rather than on restoring the riverine ecosystem.
The assessment of a ‘close-to-nature’ river for its soundness
and sustainability is frequently performed mostly by the use of
the biological factors, such as biodiversity, richness and
abundance. The physical soundness of a restored river is also
measured by the stability and sustainability of macro/meso/
micro-habitats created in the river restoration works.
Two different approaches can be equally pursued in Korea
especially for planning urban stream restoration works. One is
the ecosystem-oriented river restoration, the other is the
aesthetics-oriented restoration (Woo and Kim, 2006), which
274 H. Woo / Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278

Fig. 4. Removal of a small dam (weir) used for drinking water supply (left: before, right: after).

are already described in this article as “Close-to-nature” and
“Park” rivers, respectively. The most well-known example of
the aesthetics-oriented stream restoration in Korea may be the
Cheonggye-cheon Restoration Project (Kim et al., 2006a,b,c)
in Seoul, the main focus of which is the revival of the aesthetic
value of stream using landscape architecture emphasized as
shown in Fig. 5, rather than on the restoration of the stream
ecosystem, which may be inevitable in such a highly urban-
ized stream.
A grand-scale, multi-purpose river project called the “Four
Major River Restoration Project”, was launched in Korea in
December 2009 in order to chase the “two rabbits” of water
control and restoration of the largest four rivers (Hydrolink,
2009). The project has been opposed by groups of environ-
mentalists and political opposition parties, due to the concern
that the ecosystems of the rivers and surrounding areas would
be damaged. The project is expected to cost at least 19 billion
USD and create jobs and stimulate the economies of the
regions involved. The project, due to be mostly completed by
2011 and some dams by 2012, involve the large-scale dredging
of riverbeds, construction of 16 submerged weirs (overflow
dams) in order to create more channel storage and recreational
environments, heightening a few dozen existing small dams,
and a few new dam construction projects upstream of the rivers
that altogether can store up to 1.3 billion cubic meters of fresh
water. Dredging of the river channel bottoms is also expected to
lower the flood stage by up to 3.9 m in the most vulnerable
reaches of the rivers.
For conservation and restoration of the riverine ecosystems
in the projected areas, all the river reaches are divided into
a few different zones of conservation, ecosystem-oriented and
amenity-oriented restoration works. The ecosystem restoration
is to be mainly achieved by the restoration of the wetlands lost
due to channelization, while the amenity-oriented restoration
is to be usually facilitated in the urban river reach (see Fig. 6).
Also, in order to meet an increasing demand for eco-tours and

Fig. 5. Comparative pictures before and after the Cheonggye-cheon restoration project (left: a highway-decked street, right: a reviving stream; photo courtesy to the
Seoul Metropolitan Government).
 H. Woo / Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278
Fig. 6. A schematic view of a river reach after restoration with a submerged weir installed across the river (a small picture at upper right: before project, a large
picture: after project) (from a Korean Government data file).
recreation in Korea, the project involves tour boat cruises,
riverine eco-camping sites, and nation-wide bicycle routes
along the riverside of 1700 km. The project also involves
increasing instream flows in the rivers by the newly con-
structed and heightened dams upstream, cleaning up nearby
farmlands and preventing the flows of pesticides and other
effluents into the rivers. As of the end of May 2010, the whole
project had progressed by 15% and the weir works by 31%.
The construction of numerous submerged weirs and the
heightening of some existing small dams in the Four Major
River Restoration Project are not contradictory to the small
dam removal as introduced at Section 3.4. Removal of small
dams for the restoration of eco-corridor in the river can be
justified only for the dams and weirs which are no longer
active and thus useless, while the newly constructed weirs in
the Project have their own planned functions and usages, such
as the storage of the water for water supply and water
recreation.
4. Future prospect of ecological river engineering
4.1. Research on “white rivers” and “green rivers”
Among the various ingredients of ecological river engi-
neering as introduced in this article, the establishment and
expansion of riparian vegetation due to the artificial changes in
flow and sediment regime of the river, which is under the
category of floodplain vegetation modeling research, needs to
be carefully scrutinized. In Korea, rivers were naturally
“white”, meaning along the riverside there were very large and
wide sand and/or gravel bars as compared to the width of the
river channel, because of the high seasonal variation in flow
regime. On the other hand, rivers in Europe are generally
“green”, which means that the floodplains of the European
rivers are covered with vegetation, usually to the very edges of
the river banks. In Europe, seasonal variations of the river
flows are much smaller as compared with those in Korea
(Woo and Lee, 1993).
Since the river development and channelization works have
been accelerated since the 1960s in Korea, flow and sediment
275
regimes of the rivers have been greatly changed, and they now
show accelerated vegetation establishment and expansion on
the “white” bars of floodplains. Now almost every river reach
in Korea has “green” riparian floodplains instead of the orig-
inal “white” ones, especially in the small and medium rivers
where flow and sediment regimes can be easily changed by
human activities in the river. Two cases were already
explained in this paper with the Hwang River and upper
Nakdong River.
“Green rivers” may pose a serious engineering problem of
increasing flood hazards through the increased flow resistance
and fixation and heightening of riparian lands. On the other
hand, “green rivers” can support more diverse species
compared with “white rivers” which usually have relatively
monotonous habitats and lack nutrients required for the
feeding of aquatic and riparian food chains. For example,
a ‘green river’ can create new wetlands on once naked sand
bars in the floodplain by inducing vegetation recruitment and
making back marsh and berms in the floodplain. A good
example of such is the Gudam Wetland downstream on the
upper Nakdong River introduced at Section 3.3. The wetland
has been already designated as a ‘Protected Wetland’ under
the relevant law.
Is it necessary to restore a “green river” (see Fig. 3b) back
to a “white river” (see Fig. 3a)? The answer may be yes and
no. It should be considered in the aspect of a long-term policy
of national land and river management. For many of the river
reaches in Korea, however, it would seem to be practically
impossible to restore them completely to their original shape
and composition.
The governing factors for this change have been known to
be the bed shear stress, sediment deposition, and soil moisture
in the bars (or floodplains). Some numerical models for this
phenomenon have been developed as a “floodplain vegetation
model” (Egger, 2006), only with the flow shear stress and
succession of vegetation being considered qualitatively so far.
In order to make a more rigorous model for simulating and
predicting the riparian vegetation changes, however, it should
include the effects of groundwater levels and precipitation as
well as sediment transport. In Korea, a more rigorous model
276 H. Woo / Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278
for the simulation of the riparian vegetation establishment and
succession is being developed as a part of the Ecorvier21
research project (refer to the website in the reference).
4.2. National research on ecological river engineering
Two large research programs on ecological engineering are
presently being conducted, both of which are sponsored by the
Government of Korea. One is the research on river restoration,
called “Ecoriver21, which is sponsored by the Ministry of
Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM), while the
other is the research on aquatic ecosystem restoration, called
“Ecostar”, which is sponsored by the Ministry of Environment
(MOE).
The Ecoriver21 research program, with a total research
fund amounting to about 17 million USD, is to last for five
years starting in 2006 and ending in 2011, and practically
covers almost all the aspects of ecological river engineering.
This research program is to develop the methodologies and
techniques for amenity enhancement in degraded urban rivers
and for the restoration of the ecosystems in degraded suburban
rivers. The Ecoriver21 research program has four sub-
programs and each sub-program has about 2e4 sub-sub-
programs called a unit program. The four sub-programs
consist of research and development of the techniques and
measures for (1) floodplain and channel utilization, (2) flood-
plain conservation and restoration, (3) river habitat enhance-
ment, and (4) river restoration planning/evaluation/adaptive
management.
The program named Ecostar is a research program with
a total fund of about 51 million USD, and lasts for six and
half-years commencing from December 2007 and ending in
May 2014. It focuses rather on the commercialization of its
research output. The five major areas of research and devel-
opment of relevant technologies are (1) restoration of aquatic
habitat and river, (2) augmentation of environmental flow and
purification of river water, (3) construction of riparian vege-
tation and eco-belt, (4) assessment of health of rivers and
lakes, and (5) socioeconomic and education/training (refer to
the website in the reference).
4.3. Experimental facilities for ecological river
engineering
Ecological river engineering is different from traditional
river engineering in the sense that the former requires the
observation of flora and fauna under a controlled physical
and sometime chemical condition. In other words, changes
in the aquatic habitats due to changes in the physical and
chemical conditions of the river should be observed and
analyzed over a long period of time, such as one year or more
under controlled conditions. In Korea, a large-scale near-
prototype river experiment station, with three main experi-
mental channels, each of more than 500 m long, has been
recently completed on a floodplain of the Upper Nakdong River
(Lee et al., 2006). The function of that experiment station is
basically similar to the Aqua Restoration Research Center
(ARRC) in Nagoya, Japan (refer to the website in the refer-
ence), but it has a larger water pumping capacity of 8 m3/s, that
enables it to focus on the simulation of small-scale flood events
as well as the ecological processes in the stream. Pending
experiments using this facility include, among others, flow
resistance by an individual and a group of trees with rigid/
flexible stems, survival rates of vegetation under a long-term
submergence, and the hydraulic stability of so-called close-to-
nature levee revetments.
5. Conclusions
 Ecological river engineering in Korea is at the early stages
using existing scientific knowledge on the processes of
aquatic ecosystem degeneration and methodologies for
solving the ecological problems in artificially altered
rivers under development. Its practical importance is
embedded in the two schematic diagrams suggested in this
article; the evolving progress of river management and
work practices (Fig. 1) and the physical interactions
among the relevant factors (Fig. 2).
 The river management practice in Korea started from
a ‘Natural’ river before the 1960s and has passed through
the stage of ‘Disaster-prevention’ rivers during the
1970se90s, with an intermittent stage of the ‘Occupied’
river during the 1970se80s. It has now reached at the
stage of a ‘Park’ river since the late 1990s in most urban
rivers with a few ‘Close-to-nature’ rivers in the 2000s.
Most rivers in Korea, however, are still in the stage of
a ‘disaster-prevention’ river.
 Research and implementation of river restoration, one of
the most active areas of ecological river engineering in
Korea, enjoys great support from the government with
some monumental restoration projects of urban streams
and large rivers in Korea having been completed and
currently under construction. Experiences based on the
numerous restoration projects on urban rivers in highly
developed areas lead to the preference of the amenity-
oriented restoration model including the waterfront
development and the ecological/recreational park. Also,
techniques developed and experience obtained during the
numerous urban river restoration projects are being
exported to neighboring regions in Asia.
 One of the future prospects of ecological river engineering
in Korea is in regards to the floodplain vegetation
recruitment and succession, which designates almost all
the streams and rivers as a “white river” or a “green river”.
Rigorous modeling for the simulation of the riparian
vegetation recruitment and succession, such as models
simulating bed shear stress, soil moisture contents, and
succession stage of vegetation, is required in order to be
utilized practically for the management of vegetation in
a river.
 Two large national research programs on the riverine
ecosystem restoration and a near-prototype experiment
facility recently completed mainly for research on
ecological river engineering would be good infrastructures
 H. Woo / Journal of Hydro-environment Research 4 (2010) 269e278
for the science and knowledge on ecological river engi-
neering to be better understood and more widely adapted
in Korea.
Acknowledgement
This article was based on numerous research activities in
Ecoriver21 (2006, B01), which is supported by the MLTM/
KICTEP in Korea.
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